Applicants Jerry J. Gatlin and Trigg Marquiss are ranchers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., who have used their life-long experiences in horseback riding and training to develop an improved riding spur for the horse-riding and ranching community.
Gatlin first developed his horse-riding skill as a young boy while ranching with his father in Colorado and New Mexico. He then rode professionally in the rodeo for seven years. With his extensive equestrian experience and skill, Gatlin moved to Hollywood and worked for forty years as a stuntman in western movies, fourteen of which starred the movie legend John Wayne.
Marquiss, also an adept horse-rider, rode for years as a professional rodeo rider as well, and showed exceptional skill as a rodeo roper. His expertise in horses ranges from horse riding and ranching to horse breeding, and he is also known for his ability as a horse trainer.
Gatlin returned to ranching in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, after spending many years in Hollywood, and began offering his services as a guide to fishermen and big game hunters in the western wilderness. Gatlin, now semi-retired, often works with Marquiss, who is a full-time rancher in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Yarquiss and Gatlin, after spending their professional lives working with riding spurs, have developed a riding spur with a retaining lip to fix the problem of their riding spurs from "riding up" while the rider is still in the saddle.
Riding spurs have long been used to encourage a horse to perform at peak ability. Traditionally, a spur has a generally U-shaped metal member, referred to as a band, that fits about the rear of the rider's boot adjacent the heel and has a rearward projection which often carries a point or a rowel having a multiplicity of points. In conventional designs, each spur normally has two straps that are attached to the opposite ends of the band and also serve to releasably attach the spur to the rider's boot. In such conventional designs, one strap passes under the instep of the boot, while the second strap is buckled above the foot of the boot, thereby releasably attaching the spur to the boot. In conventional spur designs, the rear of the heel of the boot frequently urges the band of the spur to ride upward, causing the projection of the spur carrying the point or rowel to extend in a direction that is more or less parallel to the rider's leg. In this position, the spur is of little, if any, effect because the spur cannot adequately contact the horse. Furthermore, once the spur has ridden up in this manner, it must be manually repositioned by he rider, which is often quite difficult and even dangerous to accomplish when the rider is in the saddle.
Prior spur designs have been made to prevent such "riding up" by attaching the upper straps of the spur to the band in a location forward of the lower strap. Prior spur designs have also included a ridge element that can be wedged between the heel of the boot and the upper portion of the boot. For example, Rothenburg U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,650 describes a small rib that extends from the middle of inner surface of the spur collar. In operation, Rothenburg's small rib may not extend fully into the gap or crevice located at the junction of the heel and the foot of the boot, normally made of leather, thereby not fully engaging the spur and not fully preventing the spur from moving from the desired position. In addition, Rothenburg's rib is described as being located within the middle portion of the inside surface of the spur, and is therefore difficult to fixedly attach, by welding or otherwise, to the inside surface of the spur. For these reasons, the prior designs have been inadequate in retaining the spur in its proper position extending from the rider's boot.